a) Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a headphone set comprising a hoop band, to each of the two ends of which is fixed a respective acoustic transducer and which extends accurately in a plane, with a joint for folding the ends of the hoop band inwardly in the plane and an elastic region for resiliently expanding and narrowing the hoop band.
b) Description of the Related Art
Headphone sets which can be folded together are known. They generally have at least one joint in the hoop band region and often have a respective joint in the regions of the temples of the head in the hoop band and also telescopic hoop band portions which when retracted shorten the hoop band and which when extended serve for adjusting the position of the acoustic transducers of the headphone set to the ear and the head of the user.
When the known headphone sets have been folded together, the user often wraps the cables of the acoustic transducers around the headphone set in the folded-together condition, so that the headphone set does not become unfolded again.
In that situation or at the latest when the cables are unwound again, they often become tangled and knotted. However, without the cables being wound around the known foldable headphone sets, they usually do not reliably remain in their position of being folded together. That also results in particular in difficulties when stowing the folded-together headphone set, more specifically this being a situation in which the headphone set can undesirably become unfolded again. In addition, upon being removed from any relatively narrow case, the headphone set then has a tendency to become unintentionally unfolded whereby it has a tendency to become hooked up and possibly bent or broken.
An embodiment by way of example of a headphone set of the above-described kind can be found for example in DE 31 18 294 C2. The headphone set described in that publication has a central joint which is disposed at the center of the hoop band and by which the headphone set can be folded together in such a way that the ear pieces of the acoustic transducers lie flat again each other.
Another example of a known headphone set is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,418. The headphone set disclosed therein has two joints which are arranged in the hoop bands and about which the ends thereof can be folded inwardly in such a way that the transducers come to lie within the arc of the hoop band.